Pages

Monday, August 15, 2016

EXULTATION AT CALAMITIES

I once saw videos of a group of people dancing and singing because another group suffered a calamity.  Unlike them we should be very careful about assuming calamities are God's judgment upon People.

Calamities can be of two types:  those which God generates (as a tornado), and those which men generate (as in the Twin Towers.)

A “Calamity” is different than a “Judgment”.  Calamity happens to the guilty and innocent alike.  It is more generalized, far reaching, than a judgment.  It seems to cover much more area than a peoples' transgression would warrant.  A calamity is like a tornado destroying a whole town rather than a specific household.

Judgment is what happens to those deserving punishment for wrong-doing.  Judgment is targeted specifically toward the sinners and not the innocent about them.

Feeling of glee for the misfortunes of others is itself a sin.  It is bad, perhaps dangerous, to have happy feelings when something bad happens to someone you do not like.  "... and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished."  (Prov 17:5b)

The Twin Towers were a “Calamity” to us but a “Judgment” to the thugs who perpetrated it.  Under our law and under the international law, what these thugs did was a crime, not a judgment.  What we know is that God will have the ultimate judgment, maybe not at a time we desire, but it will be at the perfect time and it will be a perfect judgment.

We should hope that God's judgment will turn the wicked toward righteousness and that God will get glory from pulling diamonds out of the ashes.